Method of forming decorative leather surface and product made thereby



March 3, 1935. 1 FROHLIQH 2,033,066

METHOD OF FORMING DECORATIVE LEATHER SURFACE AND PRODUCT MADE THEREB Y Filed Nov. 10, 1934 1 1 1 l r I INVENTOR IRVING FROHLICH ATTdRNEY Patented Mar. 3, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF FORMING DECORATIVE LEATHER SURFACE AND PRODUCT MADE THEREBY Application November 10, 1934, Serial No. 752,424

6 Claims.

The invention relates in general to a method of forming ornamented surfaces to articles composed of or faced with leather, such as shoes, belts, handbags, badges, buttons, artificial jewelry and the like and to the lace-faced leather product resulting therefrom.

By the use of the word leather herein, it is understood to include natural finished leather such as calf skin, pig skin, cow hide, chamois and the like, either dyed, in their natural colors, or with the dressed side coated with either metallic composition or with any of the colors usually used in providing colored leather; and the term leather is also designed to include those synthetic leathers commonly referred to as artificial or imitation leather.

In this application reference to lace will be considered as a generic expression to include any woven open-mesh fabric, formed of a thread or plurality of threads arranged to form some definite character of surface, as is the case of plain net with its more or less regular formation of openings or interstices, as well as the more fanciful fabrics with included figures and characters commonly referred to as laces.

The primary object of the invention is to provide a simplified, easily practiced and thus economic method for decorating or providing an artistic-finish to leather, and thus to provide a leather facing or surface which'will disclose to view a preformed design or pattern, with the material of which the design is formed constituting a positive and the facing color of the leather showing through the opening or interstices of the pattern to form a negative of the positive pattern.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a surface to the leather which will provide a regular, repeated showing of some design or pattern; for instance, a design which will simulate an embossed, mottled, stippled, dotted, spotted, or a lizard-skin appearing effect and to obtain such surface ornamentation in an economic manner and without necessity of using dies, woodcuts and the like, which are expensive, especially where the pattern used "therewith is complicated or involves large numbers of fine lines to obtain the desired effect.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a lace-face leather, in which the lace is incorporated in the face .of the "leather, and displays the pattern design and the thin filigree 'linesand other small size showings which characterize fine lace.

Broadly these objects are attained simply by positioning a layer of open-work net or lace having some preformed design, character, or pattern as an integral part thereof, on a layer of leather and subjecting the same to sufficient pressure to cause the lace to become embedded in the face of the leather.

'Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from a consideration of the method features of the disclosure and from an inspection of the accompanying drawings and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one method of practicing the invention, and the invention also consists in certain new and novel modifications of the preferred method as well .as to the products produced following such method or methods.

In the .accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 isa plan view looking down upon a surface of a piece of leather decorated by the method herein featured and with one corner developed in detail to show the knots of the threads forming the lace;

Fig. 2 isan explanatory view of a step in the method showing a piece of leather on the fixed plate of a press and a piece of .lace stretched fiat and about to be laid on the leather; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged .sectional view taken on theline 3-3 of Fig. l with the several layers highly magnified and not necessarily in their proportion,.showing three of the threads forming the lace .as they are .assumed to exist in the finished product.

In the .drawing and referring first to the disclosure in Fig. 2 there is shown a fragment of :a layer of prepared leather 1.0 as is available in theopen market and the top surface of which is dyed, stained, coated or otherwise finished with a layer of coloring. material I I. In one form of the invention this covering is a metallic coating, one form of which leather is known on the market as silver skin. Some quite beautiful effects can be obtained by the judicial selection of different colors or characters of leathers and laces; startling effects having been obtained by the use of a black faced leather with a fine mesh fabric laceknown generally as gold lace contrasting with the black background provided .by the leather.

In preparing the leather for use in the method herein disclosed, the dressed or colored side of the leather is spread with a lacquer .or adhesive I2 and permitted to dry. The leather is then .laid ona. support suchas thebase plate A of a "hydraulic press so as to bring the top or exposed material may be an open mesh net or lace of somewhat regular design as shown in the more or less regular arrangement of diamond shaped openings I4 as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, or it may include within the open work more closely knit pattern designs such as the trifolium shown at IS in Figs. 1 and 2.

The present disclosure particularly features the use of delicate fine laces and it is to be understood that the threads I6 which form the lace in -Fig. l are extremely fine so that the resulting effect of these fine gauge fibrous threads is the formation of a delicate tracery and sometimes almost invisibly fine lines which give a. cobwebby effect to the surface of the leather. Using different forms of lace inserts gives a variety of different effects which can be obtained simply by selecting different forms of laces, even an inexpensive grade of lace can produce pleasing effects when sunk into the leather face. It is not only possible to use open work fabric designated as laces but other open mesh fabric can give pleasing design character to the finished leather. For instance, a leather which has the appearance of lizard skin can be produced by using a relatively fine but regular open work form of net and the part of the showing in Fig. 1 marked l1 outside of the more matted areas at l may be regarded as net.

In general it is understood that any open work fabric may be used to advantage, it simply being required that the leather show through the openings M in the fabric to maintain the surface as a leather surface, or in the case where precoated leather is used there shall be retained the coated leather character of the original surface.

After the fabric has been carefully hand stretched but the net not distorted from its initial configuration and laid on top of the leather, it is preferably sprayed with a coat of lacquer and permitted to dry. As this fine spray of lacquer over the threads eventually becomes a part of the upper or finishing layer hereinafter described and the part of the sprays between the lace openings becomes perhaps part of both the finishing layer and the layer l2, it is not separately shown in the accompanying drawing.

The superposed layers of leather, lacquer, lace and lacquer thus formed are subjected to pressure as by means of the pressure plate B coming down on top of the assembly with a pressure sufficient to force the lace fabric into the coating layer i2 and undoubtedly even through this coating and into the surface of the leather. In Fig. 3 the layer I2 is shown as extending under the flattened out threads IS with uniformity of thickness but this is problematic and the intent here is simply to show what is believed to be the situation when pressure is applied on top of a lace when positioned on top of a. layer of leather, the top surface of which has been thinly lacquered.

The amount of pressure used varies with the surface of the finished product.

character of leather and lace under treatment. In one practical operation a pressure of the order of five hundred pounds per square inch was found to be satisfactory.

The character of the underside of the pressure 5 plate B defines the character of the decorated If it is desired to give a dull leather-like appearance to this surface, the underside of the plate B is correspondingly roughened to simulate a leather surface. On the contrary, if a high shiny or gloss surface is desired likewise the underside of the pressure plate B is given a smooth or polished facing.

The degree of heat used, if any, during the pressing process is highly important. It has been found that unless care is exercised in both the degree of temperature used and the duration of the heattreatment, the leather is apt to be damaged. High temperatures afiect the character of the leather and cause it to lose its life. The present disclosure therefore features what may be called a cold pressing process in which the temperature is not materially greater than the prevailing atmospheric temperature. However, with the lacquers or other adhesives used to form r the coating I2 and the subsequent thin spray over the lace when in position, it is preferable that these lacquers be in a sticky or plastic condition during the pressing and the best results are 010- tained where the pressure plate B is heated slightly say to IOU-120 F.

The leather is permitted to remain under pressure for a few minutes, is then removed from the press and the finished product is ready for use.

Rather than use the unilateral press hereinbefore referred to, it is a more economical procedure, especially in the case where large lengths of material are to be treated, to feed the leather and lace fabric through pressure rollers as a continuous operation. Highly polished brass rollers with means for regulating the pressure between the same and provided with means for heating the rollers which engage the lace side of the leather have given general satisfaction.

It is also suggested that the finished product,

v after it has been removed from the press or rollers, be coated with a layer of pyroxilin l8, lacquer, film, glue, varnish, shellac, or like transparent protective material through which the design is visible.

The method herein disclosed features the utilization of all sorts of odd pieces of lace and the resulting products will vary in design as the different pieces of lace vary in design. A concern, for E instance, which is selling handbags or shoes could have each article distinctive in its surface ornamentation from every other similar article. Where some regularly repeated small designs, such as the diamond forms illustrated, are used pleasing efiects with a uniformity of surface treatment can be obtained in those cases where the more pronounced figures, like the showing at l5, are not desired. For instance, assuming in the showing in the drawing that the leather is Z 'silver kid and that the lace mesh is formed of black threads, the black would form a somewhat checkerboard design in black with the diamond shaped silvered surfaces showing through the interstices of the black design to form the negative 57 thereof in a silver design. Beautiful two tone effects can be obtained by using a lace of the same color but differing in shade or tone from the color of the background formed by the leath- .er itself. 7

Under some circumstances the lace constitutes a reinforcement of the leather and this is valuable especially in those situations where an extremely thin layer of leather is used. The addition of the lace in no way interferes with the pliability or flexibility of the leather so that the leather can be bent to shape as such leathers are customarily bent without the lace insert herein featured.

While there has been shown, described, and pointed out in the annexed claims, certain novel features of the invention, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form and details of the method illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. In the art of forming an ornamental surface to a leather article, the method which consists in stretching into flat position a layer of leather having a surface of a certain color, stretching into flat position a layer of fabric lace having a color contrasting with the surface color of the leather and having its threads forming an open-work net of apertures forming a prescribed design and certain of the threads being closely knit to form figures in the open work net area, the stretching operating to expose the pattern and to open up the net to its original conformation of the apertures forming the prescribed design and to locate the figures in their originally formed relative relation, positioning the lace when so flattened on to the colored surface of the leather, spraying the lace and the portion of the leather exposed through the net apertures in the lace with a layer of lacquer, permitting the lacquer to dry, thereby to fix the lace temporarily with its flattened pattern so positioned on the leather, subjecting the layers to a squeezing pressure and at a temperature of approximately IOU-120 F., thereby to embed in the lacquer the threads forming the lace and causing the lace to be embedded in and permanently fixed to the leather as an integral part thereof, the coated part of the leather being exposed and thus visible through the apertures and the exposed leather forming a pattern which will be the negative of the pattern formed by the net-portion of the embedded lace, simultaneously with said squeezing action die-pressing a desired character of surface to said leather formed negative of the net pattern and finally coating the structure so formed with a layer of a flexible, transparent protective material through which the lace decorated surface is visible and by means of which the several parts of the pattern are additionally fixed in their initial relative position.

2. In the art of forming an ornamental surface to a leather article, the method which consists in stretching into fiat position a layer of leather, stretching into fiat position a layer of fabric lace having its threads forming an openwork net of apertures forming a prescribed design the stretching operating to expose the pattern and to open up the net to its original conformation of the apertures forming the prescribed design, positioning the lace when so flattened on to a surface of the leather, spraying the lace and the portion of the leather exposed through the net apertures in the lace with a layer of lacquer, thereby to fix the lace temporarily with its flattened pattern so positioned on the leather, subjecting the layers to a squeezing pressure and to heat, thereby to embed in the lacquer the threads forming the lace and causing the lace to be embedded in and permanently fixed to the leather as an integral part thereof, the coated part of the leather being exposed and thus visible through the apertures and the exposed leather forming a pattern which will be the negative of the pattern formed by the net-portion of the embedded lace, simultaneously with said squeezing action die-pressing a desired character of surface to said leather formed negative of the net pattern and finally coating the structure so formed with a layer of a flexible, transparent protective material through which the lace .decorated surface is visible and by means of which the several parts of the pattern are additionally fixed in their initial relative position.

3. In the art of forming decorative leather goods, the method which comprises positioning a layer of open-work fabric lace on the dressed side of a layer of leather, subjecting the layers so superposed to pressure to impress the lace into the leather simultaneously die-pressing a desired character of surface to the lace-faced surface of the leather and then coating the lace side of the resulting foraminous material with a layer of pyroxylin or lacquer film.

4. In the art of producing a decorative leather product, the method which comprises pressing into one face of a layer of leather a thread or a plurality of threads forming an open work lace pattern having a color contrasting with the color of the leather and through the interstices of which lace pattern the leather is visible and of itself forms a negative pattern, die-pressing a desired character of surface to the negative pattern and securing the threads to the leather in their open-work pattern forming position thereby to fix the negative pattern.

5. A decorative product comprising a layer of leather having embedded in one face thereof a net work of threads forming an open-work pattern design and certain of the threads being closely knit to form a figure in the open-work pattern and having a transparent coating of material overlaying the open-work pattern, the figure and the portions of the leather face exposed through the open work pattern and the portions of the leather showing through the openings in the pattern being each provided with a design character.

6. A decorative product comprising a layer of leather having a fabric layer of open-work lace fixedly embedded in one face thereof, said lace being of a color contrasting with the color of the leather and the leather showing through the open-work design or pattern formed by the lace and of itself forming a fixedly located negative of the lace pattern, said leather being compressed and its lace face surface in the portions thereof within the areas outlined by the threads of the lace provided with a design.

IRVING FROHLICH. 

